U.S. Cellular will ring in the holidays with Friday's rollout of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to all Samsung Galaxy S III smartphones.

The upgrade, U.S. Cellular said, "enhances the wireless experience by making the device faster, smoother and more responsive."

Jelly Bean comes with a number of new features, including a refined camera with built-in filters and a pause-and-resume option while recording video, as well as Easy Mode for first-time smartphone users and improved usability with multiple keyboard options.

Additionally, the new Google Now feature offers information any time  check rush-hour traffic or the subway schedule before leaving work, or find out the latest score of a sports game, delivered as a notification to your phone. Google Now also serves as a personal assistant, providing users with weather, maps, navigation, search, flight status, and other information, and can be launched directly from the lock screen shortcut, or with a long press on the menu button, from any screen.

Galaxy S III owners will soon have access to rich notifications, which can expand and shrink with a pinch, showing as much or as little information as the user wants. Other enhancements allow actions to be taken directly from the notifications platform, without having to launch an app first.

Customization will also get easier, with automatically resizing widgets to fit on the screen with other icons.

U.S. Cellular is the latest Samsung's carrier partner to receive the upgrade. Since the phone maker confirmed in early October that it would be pushing Android 4.1 to its flagship Galaxy S III, Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon Wireless have all begun offering their customers the latest Google OS.

On Friday, Galaxy S III users can visit the U.S. Cellular website for details on the upgrade process. Owners can upgrade wirelessly, or by connecting their device to a computer via USB cable.

Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (in the town of Indiana, in the state of Pennsylvania) with a degree in journalism and mass communications.
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